We would like to send a huge Congratulations to ex-Shelbourne Youth Academy player and current Shelbourne FC League of Ireland Under 17 player Aidan Keena on being called up to the Irish U17 Squad.

Aidan has played with us here at Shelbourne FC for the past two years and has developed fantastically so much so that he has been recently invited up to the Irish trial games and due to his fantastic performance in these trial games and of course in the League this year he has earned himself a call up to the International set up which is managed by Tom Mohan.

The Irish squad have been preparing for the upcoming UEFA European Championship Qualififers in Finland by getting in a few training sessions in QPR, England and Tom Mohan has given the following interview to www.fai.ie

"Things are progressing well. We got the players together on Saturday and trained at QPR's training ground for three days. We had some good sessions with the squad. The players are in good form so the atmosphere is good as we travel to Helsinki today," he said.

"We will have two sessions before the first game. It'll definitely be a tough opener against the hosts and overall there's nothing easy about this group. For a qualifying phase I feel all three games will be difficult test. Finland are at home and have had nine games over the summer to prepare so they will be very well prepared.

"Malta have proven difficult for a number of sides in recent years. They are well organised, are hard to break down and will try to hit you on the break. Sweden will be tough as ever. We drew with them two years and they went on to finish third in the world so they have pedigree.

"The two games we played in Hungary were good preparation. Together with the rest of the staff we looked at 20 players and had a chance to see how they performed at that level against a physical side who were good opponents. We got a lot out of those games and hope to improve on the performance level.

"Injuries mean we're missing Anthony Scully, Aaron O'Driscoll, Rian O'Sullivan and Thomas O'Connor so that opens up the door for others to prove themselves at this level."

The Irish fixtures can be found below,

Thursday, 24th September 

18:00hrs          Republic of Ireland v Finland, Eerikkila Arena, Tammela.

Saturday, 26th September 

12:00hrs          Malta v Republic of Ireland, Lohja Harju Sports Centre.

Tuesday, 29th September 

16:45hrs          Republic of Ireland v Sweden, Lohja Harju Sports Centre

Again everyone here at Shelbourne Youth ACademy would like to wish Aidan and all the Irish squad the best of luck in the coming days.

We will keep everyone updated on the results and Aidan's progress on our facebook page in the coming days.